Ugh. Apparently it's that time of year - Gavroche has started his seasonal teeth grinding. I don't understand it. He's been to the vet every year for it and he has no idea either. We tried him on ranitidine, reglan, antibiotics, melatonin, rescue remedy...nothing helps. His teeth are fine. He doesn't appear to be in pain. He's not acting itchy or anything like that.

The thing that gets me is that it starts earlier every year. The first year, no grinding. The second year he started in March, then February, then January, and now December (it's been going on for a few weeks already). I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

I'm not home more in the winter, but even if I was, someone is home with him nearly all the time. My older brother was actually the first one to notice it this year. When he does it, he does it nearly constantly.

I can't think of anything major that changes. The only thing I can think of is photoperiod, but then why would it change every year? Is it possible to get more and more sensitive to photoperiod each year? He started about 1-2 weeks before the winter solstice. Can dogs have seasonal affective disorder? Can the time of year it starts change? Photoperiod/seasonality is why we tried him on melatonin, but it does absolutely nothing for it. I even upped the dose to 5mg instead of 3, and tried a time-release formula, but it just doesn't work.

He lets me feel his mouth, open it up, manipulate his tongue and jaws. I don't see anything at all wrong with it. His vet looked at him thoroughly last year and said his mouth is fine. He has some wonky teeth because he's a boxer, but that shouldn't be anything that affects him seasonally.

He goes outside the same amount at the same times. He eats the same thing at the same times. He gets his meds the same times at the same dosages, and the same brand.

My trainer mentioned maybe his ears itch, but they look fine and he's not otherwise bothering them. I flushed them out just in case (and have in the past, too).

Last year he stopped right about the time he got over his UTI, but it seems that was coincidence. He's had UTIs off and on for the past year, and he never was grinding his teeth then, even when he had one so bad he had bloody urine. he didn't have UTIs the previous years when he was grinding his teeth. He just finished two months of high-dose Baytril a few weeks ago. He's leaked once since then but otherwise seems to be over the UTI.

I'm considering asking for a trial of fluoxetine or something, just to see if it helps. I'm really out of ideas. It's frustrating as hell.

ETA: He just stood up on my bed, and lifted his right leg in the air and was stretching it weird - kind of like small dogs with luxating patellas tend to do when they get a patella stuck out of position. I felt his stifles and they felt fine, couldn't get them to luxate (never have luxated in the past, either). I wonder if his joints act up in the cold? He did start right about the time we got a cold snap. He's had stifle issues twice in the past (once when he was first found, and again right before he got diagnosed with hypothyroidism), and is a bit dysplastic. Other than that one thing just now, though, he's been acting fine - no limping, no mis-stepping, nothing.

We're trying him on a trial of ranitidine with metoclopramide added. If it's reflux, the two together should fix it. If it does fix it, it still beat me as to why it's seasonal. His hips and stifles checked out fine, and he's not shown any signs of pain since that weird stretching incident.

If this doesn't work, we'll try a trial of fluoxetine. If that doesn't work...I have no freaking clue. We may do dental rads and/or extractions. I just don't think it's dental.